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George Partridge (1740-1828)
}} Biography * 1st Member - U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's 5th district (1789-1790) * Delegate from Massachusetts to the Continental Congress (1779-1785) * Representative to the Massachusetts House of Representatives (1774-1779) George Partridge (February 8, 1740 – July 7, 1828) was an American teacher and politician. He represented Massachusetts as a delegate to the Continental Congress and as a Representative in the U.S. House. Background Partridge was born in Duxbury, Massachusetts and attended Harvard University, graduating in 1762 and obtaining a master's degree in 1765. He studied theology but never entered the active ministry. Instead, he became a school teacher in Kingston, Massachusetts. Political career In 1774, Partridge was elected as a delegate to the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, a provisional government formed to replace the Massachusetts General Court which had been suspended by Royal Governor Gen. Thomas Gage. Of the first meeting of the Provincial Congress, Partridge wrote: Gen. Gage said he had come over with his troops and proclamations to frighten us rebels into submission! We soon had his mandate, dissolving the General Court.... So we met Salem. And in a short time we began to ask one another, What can we do? The worst must come to the worst!...Shall we submit to Great Britain?.... Or shall we resist her encroachments to the point of the sword?.... The gulf is passed. We will have a Congress at Concord. We will send letters to all the colonies and urge them to send delegates to meet at Philadelphia.... We will go to our homes and wake everyone that sleeps! Partridge then served with the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1775 to 1779. In 1779 the legislature named him a delegate to the Continental Congress. He was reappointed continuously until 1785, although he missed the session held in Princeton, New Jersey in 1783. He was a charter member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1780. When the new government of the United States was installed Partridge was elected to the First United States Congress as a representative of Massachusetts Congressional District #5. He served from March 4, 1789 until he resigned on August 14, 1790. He was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1814. Partridge died at home in Duxbury in 1828 and is buried in the Mayflower Cemetery there. Partridge Academy Upon his death, Partridge bequeathed $10,000 to form a private secondary school in Duxbury. This led to the establishment of Patridge Academy which was built on Tremont Street in Duxbury in 1844. The Academy served as the town's only secondary school until the construction of the first Duxbury High School in 1927. Partridge Academy burned in 1933 and its location is now occupied by the Duxbury Town Offices. Vital Records Father's Last Will From the will of his father, George Partridge (1690-1768): Item, I give & bequeath unto my youngest son George Partridge, my home farm on which I now dwell, & my pew or seat in the meeting house in sd Duxborough, & a wood-lot being the first lot in number in the last division of Duxboro' Comons, laying near a pond, called Island-creek-pond, & my right in the eleventh lot in the sd division; & two pieces of salt-marsh lying adjacent to Sprague's neck, near six acres of them, & purchased of Mr James Partridge decd & an island of marsh known by the name of Soul's island, laying to the Northward of Powder-point in sd Duxboro', & all the remainder of my estate both real & personal after my debts & funeral charges are paid, & the legacies or gifts, or dower herein before named are paid, I give to my son George Partridge be it in bills, bonds, book-debts or notes whatsoever, ordering him to provide for my wife during her widowhood, if what I have herein before given her shall not be sufficient for her comfortable support. Lastly, My will is that my son George Partridge above-named be sole executor of this my last will and testament, thus hoping that this my last will be kept & performed, according to the true intent & meaning thereof In witness whereof, I the said George Partridge have hereunto set my hand & seal this fourteenth day of May anno-Domini one thousand, seven hundred & sixty four, 1764. References * - Wikipedia * George Patridge - FindAGrave #7505653 * Tour Historic Duxbury MA - Notable Families of Duxbury * History of the Town of Duxbury MA - Free on Google Books * DuxburyHistory.org * Alden Family Kindred Society * Duxbury...Past & Present by Patrick T.J. Browne and Norman Forgit, (Duxbury: Duxbury Rural and Historical Society, 2009) pp. 4-5. * History of Duxbury by Justin Winsor, (Boston: Crosby & Nichols, 1849) p. 125. * American Antiquarian Society Members Directory __SHOWFACTBOX__ Category:Continental Congressmen from Massachusetts Category:18th-century American politicians Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Category:Members of the American Antiquarian Society Category:Harvard University alumni Category:Members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives Category:Members of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts Category:People from Duxbury, Massachusetts Category:American schoolteachers Category:People of colonial Massachusetts